Fountain Pen Horror Stories?

[pen2paper]

quote 'irbyls'

...because everyone I know realizes in about 2 seconds that I will give them a death glare if they try to borrow a pen without permission. (I give a terrifying death glare; it's apparently very out of whack with my regular smiling/laughing visage.) ....

...

<------ see that darling little irbyls baby sister? note how the baby pudge cheeks resting on Irbyls arm are um, causing, ahem-a squint?

Imediately recognized that baby sis was FFPUIT Future Fountain Pen User In Training..

"Klaatu barada nikto"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIaxSxEqKtA

 

; )

 

 

 

 

 

[mikerph]

Back in the early 1970's, I was in college. I bought a new Parker T-1 fountain pen for the princely sum of $25.00. I was intrigued with its perfectly integrated end section-nib and its lightness. I used it daily in classes. About 3 months or so after getting it, I was in a particularly involved Chemistry class (lots of formulas) when suddenly the nib tip popped off! It suddenly ripped the notepaper and that was the end of its usefullness. I sent it off to Parker (thinking it had a lifetime warranty)and figured I'd get either a new pen or a new nib section. After about 4 weeks, I got a letter from Janesville. Parker sent me a $35.00 gift certificate tward a new pen, saying that the T-1 was out of production and couldn't be repaired. At the time I was happy to get $10.00 more than I spent;but after looking high and low for a replacement T-1 to no avail, I bought a Ciscle 75 for the $35.00! Little did i know that even with the damaged nib, the T-1 would be worth much more now than the 75! I still have the 75 but I still haven't got a T-1!

[tmcneil82]

Just the other day at work I had my first real catastrophe. I was uncapping my pilot knight, to jot down some notes at my desk. I had a firm grip on the cap, as this pen is metal and tends to be a little slippery at times, but no such luck on the body. The pen went cartwheeling into the wall and destroyed the nib. The tines were bent in completely opposite directions. I have done my amateur repair on it, and it writes again (somehow), but the nib is not the same. There is a crease were it angles up before coming back down on the feed. Luckily the pen isn't terribly expensive.

 

Also, the day after that, i finally spilled my first whole bottle of Noodler's BP black. The lost ink hurt, but spilling it over my dining room table that I had just refinished a couple of weeks ago hurt worse. I opted to leave off the polyurethane, which is what I normally finish my tables with, to give it a more natural look. Whoops.

[raigne]

I've been lucky so far, but this thread has me almost scared enough to buy a Lamy Safari.

 

I have an al-star, but this doesn't help me. It's a purple/black one and I hate to lose that just as much as I'd hate to lose any of my other ones.

 

I have done my amateur repair on it, and it writes again (somehow), but the nib is not the same. There is a crease were it angles up before coming back down on the feed. Luckily the pen isn't terribly expensive.

 

You can replace it with the nib from a 78g, or a Penmanship/Plumix. Prera also is interchangeable, but if you were to buy one of those, you may as well get a new knight.

 

Also, the day after that, i finally spilled my first whole bottle of Noodler's BP black. The lost ink hurt, but spilling it over my dining room table that I had just refinished a couple of weeks ago hurt worse.

 

I have done this too, only it was a bottle of Polar Blue and it was on my hard wood floor. I luckily got to it with cleaner in time to prevent it from drying, but that patch of floor still has a slightly blue tinge to it in spots. Oops was my response as well.

[SheilaM]

Nothing as dramatic as some of these posts, but I've had many episodes of snatching nice FPs out of the hands of others at work before the damage is done. I've taken to having one or two cool-looking rollerballs around that others can borrow while in my office; that way my staff gets to play with one of Sheila's cool pens, and I don't have the stress of trying to stop the train wreck from happening.

 

Works great. Just yesterday I snatched my Sheaffer Aspen out of someone's hands while they were yanking on the cap to get it off, and handed them a Retro 51 Cioppino RB, which looks pretty nifty and is built like a tank.

[scrawlhand]

When I was in school, about the age of 11 or 12, I was the only one in my class with a piston filler.

Needless to say, at that age you get mocked for pretty much everything that distinguishes you from the others. So I got mocked for using a piston filler.

 

There was some half wit sitting next to me who sometimes thought it rather funny to grab my pen out of my pencil case and empty the ink into the cap :bonk:

Well, the third time he ever did that I got so upset that I slapped him right in the middle of class. Of course he didn't touch my pen after that.

 

Note the irony, in school we were always told not to solve conflicts with violence, but some people don't take you seriously until you inflict pain to them

 

Steve

[raigne]

Note the irony, in school we were always told not to solve conflicts with violence, but some people don't take you seriously until you inflict pain to them

 

Steve

 

Sometimes a child has to burn their hand on the stove before they understand that they should temper their curiosity when they're told "no". Clearly your classmate made it to 10 without maturing past 2.

[sotto2]

A middle aged cleaning lady type person dragging around her 18-ish daughter and 3 little kids pulled a vintage gold Mont Blanc FP out of a shoebox I was starting to dig through at an estate sale. She showed it to me, and said "Is this pen valuable?". And then she walked off and bought it. I'm thinking that pen was eventually used as a dart by those little kids and is lodged in a tree trunk in Tarzana.

[Muncle]

Almost had one earlier this week. I was showing my lever-filler at a party (I had mentioned it earlier, and they were curious) As there was nothing to write on, I figured that they wouldn't try, plus I was close by. Instead, right over the punch bowl, I see the finger starting to lift the lever.

 

I shouted "NOOOOOOO!" loud enough so that those near me stopped and stared. I took it over to the sink to show exactly what that lever is for, and what would happen if they had pulled it.

[anaximander]

Nothing as dramatic as some of these posts, but I've had many episodes of snatching nice FPs out of the hands of others at work before the damage is done. I've taken to having one or two cool-looking rollerballs around that others can borrow while in my office; that way my staff gets to play with one of Sheila's cool pens, and I don't have the stress of trying to stop the train wreck from happening.

 

Works great. Just yesterday I snatched my Sheaffer Aspen out of someone's hands while they were yanking on the cap to get it off, and handed them a Retro 51 Cioppino RB, which looks pretty nifty and is built like a tank.

 

What a great idea! I have a Retro 51 rollerball as well (metallic apple green) and I think I'll follow your lead and take it to work.

[MadAmos]

Not really my horror story, in fact for me just the opposite...

 

Sometime around 1982 I was in a collecting phase for fountain pens but very short on funds. I would spend my time sorting through boxes at garage sales, estate sales flea markets and thrift stores finding the occasional gem and a lot of third tier pens. I still have many of them, mostly Eversharp, Wearever and Esterbrooks the few nicer pens I found were Parker 21 or Shaeffer. I never even seriously considered a Pelican or Montblanc which were my grail pens at the time.

 

On day while walking across State street in Santa Barbara CA I noticed what looked like a pen under a pile of leaves wedged against a storm drain, never one to leave a pen lay I picked up the dirt encrusted object and immediately noted a white star on the cap. I hurried to a nearby drinking fountain and rinsed it off, discovering a slightly scratched, ink window lightly stained blue, Montblanc 146 with a perfect condition fine nib. I have been using the pen on and off for the past 25 or so years and it has been a reliable companion. It did strike me then, and still even today I wonder how someone felt when they found the empty pocket or bag where it had been, and if the original owner still ever thinks about it.

[rogerb]

I have previously recounted my worst moment, so far ....(ever, I hope).... as a FP

owner/collector/enthusiast ... I had taken a friend's valuable vintage Waterman, in blue/green ripple ebonite, for restoration, and I dropped it on a tiled floor! The barrel shattered by the lever (Yes, I could have wept)

Fortunately, thanks to the internet and FPN, I was able to obtain a miraculously matching barrel from Daniel Kircheimer and the pen was then restored by Ron Z.

 

The only real pain was how I felt for a while after the accident, and to my wallet, paying for the barrel

[fpman]

Horror stories a plenty - like the time I accidentally flushed the nib and section of a pen I was cleaning the ink of of down the toilet, when I threw away the toilet paper I was blotting it with. Of the time I foolishly took a number of pens with me to one of my daughter's basketball game (why, I don't know since I was the scorer and using a pencil), in a pocket of my cargo pants. When I get home, one (but only one!) of the pens was gone, never to be found. Or the time I went with my girls to pick up trash in a near-by park and went to sign us in and accidentally threw my pen into the brush ten feet away (green pen, lots of plants, never found - by me- again). Luckily though all were vintage, all were inexpensive and back when I first started buying fountain pens (not so long ago).

 

Worse are the times I look back and think about what could have been. One time, at a local 'Peddler's' fair, I found a box of mechanical pencils and fountain pens. The vendor wanted $50 bucks, but they were mostly fountain pens and I was interested in pencils, so I passed. I've kicked myself many times since then. Luckily I don't remember any of the brands or the pain might be worse.

[AtomicLeo]

I had just discovered fountain pens. I bought a yellow Lamy Safari and a bottle of Noodler's BP Black to go with it. I left it for a moment on my end table. My son, 18 months old at the time, found it and I turned around to see him sucking on the nib; his face covered in black, bullet-proof, beach-proof ink. The pen was fine and he didn't get any ink on the carpet or furniture, but the call to the pediatrician was not fun. Me (Pen+Ink Noob): "Well it's this special ink that doesn't wash off with water or bleach" Doctor: <long pause> You have a fountain pen?

 

oh dear.. you know how everyone uses the "erupting in laughter..Spat my coffee all over the keyboard" comment?

the coffee was Very hot too!

 

so.. did the pediatrician Ever get over his pen-amazement, and give you an answer???

or did he compare notes on pens ; ) (probably a vp owner?)

 

 

He calmed me down and told me (also the newbie mom) that ink is not poisonous. I think he was surprised that they still make fountain pens. At the time, I wanted to throttle him because I was convinced that my kid was going to die from ink poisoning. Now *that* would have started an anti-Noodler's thread to rival the BSB-Vista threads! :-)

 

I used a drop of Dawn in a wet towel to clean his 'chow' mouth. Wish I would have thought to take a picture. It's a funny story. Now. :-)

[pen2paper]

I had just discovered fountain pens. I bought a yellow Lamy Safari and a bottle of Noodler's BP Black to go with it. I left it for a moment on my end table. My son, 18 months old at the time, found it and I turned around to see him sucking on the nib; his face covered in black, bullet-proof, beach-proof ink. The pen was fine and he didn't get any ink on the carpet or furniture, but the call to the pediatrician was not fun. Me (Pen+Ink Noob): "Well it's this special ink that doesn't wash off with water or bleach" Doctor: <long pause> You have a fountain pen?

 

oh dear.. you know how everyone uses the "erupting in laughter..Spat my coffee all over the keyboard" comment?

the coffee was Very hot too!

 

so.. did the pediatrician Ever get over his pen-amazement, and give you an answer???

or did he compare notes on pens ; ) (probably a vp owner?)

 

 

He calmed me down and told me (also the newbie mom) that ink is not poisonous. I think he was surprised that they still make fountain pens. At the time, I wanted to throttle him because I was convinced that my kid was going to die from ink poisoning. Now *that* would have started an anti-Noodler's thread to rival the BSB-Vista threads! :-)

 

I used a drop of Dawn in a wet towel to clean his 'chow' mouth. Wish I would have thought to take a picture. It's a funny story. Now. :-)

'chow mouth" new ink word is born... : D

[ethernautrix]

Well, my Parker 51 Carnage happened about two years ago, but Pen Posse put it back together again, a happy ending for the Humpty Dumpty pen.

[Garageboy]

A middle aged cleaning lady type person dragging around her 18-ish daughter and 3 little kids pulled a vintage gold Mont Blanc FP out of a shoebox I was starting to dig through at an estate sale. She showed it to me, and said "Is this pen valuable?". And then she walked off and bought it. I'm thinking that pen was eventually used as a dart by those little kids and is lodged in a tree trunk in Tarzana.

:crybaby:

[bjcmatthews]

How's this for ironic??

 

I started this thread the day before (I only found out now) my dad lent his Namiki Vanishing Point to a woman at work, just to sign her name, and it came back with the tines so out of place they nearly crossed over.

 

How do non fountain pen people screw stuff up so easily??

 

I reckon what hurts the most is that:

 

a) It's our passion, and we prize our pens, they mean a lot to us and cost us a bit (in my case)

No one else gives a damn. If they borrow your pen and bust it, they have no idea about what they've done, or cost us

c) You only find out about it after it's happened, and then you have to live with the regret of not having intervened/foreseen the consequences

[skram]

One time I found this Uni Ball Jet Stream 0.7 Blue in the 7th grade. A friend of mine and I would share this pen and one time when she was supposed to give it to me, she left it in my history class. So I found it in the room and it was still in good condition and useable and all and after a few more days it eventually ran out of ink. I still have the pen.

[Bronze]

- In a moment of rage I repeatedly smashed my M1000 very hard against the desk and completely and utterly destroyed the nib.

 

I threw away the nib.

 

 

Yes, I can be irrational at times.

Edited November 29, 2010 by Bronze